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Bears Ears National Monument

Op-Ed | Bears Ears And Grand Staircase: A Plea To Interior Secretary Zinke

Dear Mr. Secretary, I hope you enjoyed your recent visit to Utah, and especially to Cedar Mesa and the new Bears Ears National Monument down in San Juan County. I read that you visited Butler Wash, among other places, and got a glimpse of the ancient Puebloan dwellings that are found throughout this monument. As you gazed up at those venerable stone structures tucked in beneath the cliff, I hope that you thought for a minute about the transience of civilizations and the need to ensure a better future for our own lives here in the American West.

Secretary Zinke Won't Recommend National Park Status For Bears Ears National Monument

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, halfway through his tour of two sprawling national monuments in Utah to decide whether they're inordinately large, told reporters on Tuesday that he was not likely to recommend national park status for Bears Ears National Monument.

Interior Secretary Zinke Kicks Off His Monumental Listening Tour

Flanked by banners promoting public lands and how they "sustain the nation," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke arrived in Utah on Sunday to begin his review of national monuments established over the past two decades with a promise not to recommend the abolishment of any monument to President Trump. The secretary did not, however, promise not to recommend a reduction in the size of any monument.

Op-Ed | Some People Have Always Hated National Monuments—Until They Love Them

Last week, President Trump launched an unprecedented assault on America’s public lands when he ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to evaluate whether dozens of national monuments should be rescinded or reduced in size. It wasn't the first such attack, and more times than not in the past the same voices that once warned of economies destroyed by lands protection come to see that there’s more value in protecting a place than stripping it of minerals and trees.

Paper Trail Shows Lots Of Communications Over Bears Ears National Monument

Down through the past four years there have been multiple communications, and meetings, between the Obama administration and Utah politicians and communities over the possibility of national monument status for the Bears Ears landscape in southeastern Utah, according to documents obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Bears Ears National Monument Landscape Rivals, And In Cases Surpasses, That Of Notable National Parks

What does a landscape contain, and how do you measure its richness? Is it just the soil beneath your feet and the vegetation that rises up and adds texture and even structure? What about the sky overhead and, of course, the naturalness and ecological integrity?
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Dueling Legal Opinions Offered In Battle Over National Monuments

Two legal analyses have been added to the debate over whether President Trump can unilaterally rescind the designation of Bears Ears National Monument and, not surprisingly, they reach different conclusions.
PDF icon presidential-authority-to-revoke-or-reduce-national-monument-designations.pdf PDF icon arnold_porter_legal_memo_on_revocation_of_national_monuments.pdf

Traveler's View: Let's Not Derail Our National Parks Movement

Just months after celebrating the centennial of the National Park Service, the mood is decidedly more somber as the national parks movement in the United States has hit a stumbling block or two, from the prospect of a significant budget cut to the possible loss of the Antiquities Act as a tool for presidents to use to set aside wondrous landscapes as part of the National Park System.

Traveler's View: Interior Secretary Zinke Should Measure More Than Just Local Support When Weighing Bears Ears And Other National Monuments

A common, and surprising, thread runs through Grand Canyon, Olympic and Yellowstone national parks, as well as through Canyonlands, Grand Teton and Pinnacles national parks. They all faced measures of local opposition when talk arose about designating them.

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